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The Significance of Congregational Prayer - Al-Shia The Scientific and Cultural Website of Shia belief The Significance of Congregational Prayer 2022-10-18 929 Views Salat , Ritual prayer , Congregational Prayer , Salat al-Jama'a Islam ordained congregational prayer and emphasized it in the compulsory prayers except for the prayer of al-Tawaf (circumambulation) prayer during Hajj, and al-Nawafil Prayers (voluntary prayers).

It made it compulsory in al­Jumu’a prayer (Friday prayer) and al-Eid prayers (festival prayers) as a display of (group) worship and a means of unity, brotherhood, and equality between Muslims. The Prophet (S) said: “Whoever offers his evening prayer, night prayer, and noon prayer in congregation in the mosque, it is as if he had spent the whole night worshipping”. (1) “Congregational prayer is 25 times better than individual prayer”.

(2) Also, “Allah is obliged toward His servant, who has prayed in a congregation then asked him something, to grant him what he asked before leaving.” (3) “Whoever offers the five daily prayers in congregation, people will think good of him”. (4) In congregational ( al-Jama’a) prayers, the worshippers, arrayed in lines, turn towards Allah with one heart and one mind.

They stand facing one qiblah, one Lord, harbouring the sense of the entire humanity’s directing itself to Allah, unity of the community, and taking the same path in life. Through all this, the devotee is involved in the process of dissolving himself in the movement of people towards achieving human unity, as if a single soul and moving in the same direction.

This exemplifies the definition of agreement and the community’s submission to Allah’s will – in unison with other created beings and existing objects – in their forms of group worship. The devotees in the congregation are actually a column of souls comprising an entity of unified members that supplicate and beseech Allah in quest of nearness and in search of spring of the sacred divine love.

This ultimately intensifies the sense of humbleness in the depths of the worshippers and confers on the prayer an atmosphere of sacredness and glory. Not only does the al-Jama’a (general congregational prayer as distinct from Friday congregational prayer) reach these objectives but exceeds this to fulfil its reformative role in the life of the community and the individual. In the group prayer, the acquaintance between the worshippers is achieved. Brotherhood, love, and peace are solidified.